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Last Friday, on the way to its Eastern Division semifinal in La Quinta, a bus carrying part of the Serrano footballl team experienced a flat tire. Rather than wait until the district dispatched a repair team from Phelan, coach Ray Maholchic piled all his players onto one bus.
The cheerleaders stayed with the bus.
“We couldn’t wait,” said Maholchic. “We had three to a seat, we had to get there. In fact, the cheerleaders didn’t arrive until after the kickoff.”
Such potential issues was a major reason Fontana utilized an extra bus during its title runs in 1987 and 1989.
“We weren’t going to take chances,” said then-coach Dick Bruich. “It erased a major worry from the coaching staff and athletic director.”

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Redlands’ 6-foot-11 senior water polo/volleyball player, Cal Mende, has signed his National Letter of Intent for volleyball, to Penn State. Above, he talks about playing water polo.

From the Penn State media release:
“Mende is a two-sport athlete, playing both volleyball and water polo. Coached by Mark Mina, Mende plays club volleyball for Oasis VBC and serves as the goalie on the water polo squad at Redlands. Mende was recently honored as one of four recipients of the Redlands Unified School District (RUSD) Outstanding Student Athlete awards.

Coach Pavlik on Mende: “Cal gives us a blend of size, skill and intelligence. As a left handed opposite, I think he’ll be able to elevate his game in order to provide what’s needed at this level of play. Coming in as a multi-sport athlete will also serve him well during his career here.”

I’ve been fairly consistent of late picking winners: my week 9 record was 25-8, with my total record as 244-77-2. In addition I picked 2 more games correctly, with the exact winning margin (but not exact score). I correctly said Upland would beat Rancho Cucamonga by 18 and that Rubidoux would beat Pacific by 8 points. But on the other side, I always seem to have problems with at least 1 league. Most of the year, it’s been the Mountain Valley League. Last week, it was the Ambassador League, when I went 0-3.

REV star Malik Lovette, who is bound for Oregon, is expected to be 100 percent for Friday’s showdown with Carter.

GAME PREVIEW: Redlands East Valley (8-1, 6-0) at Carter (8-1, 6-0), 7 p.m.
It’s really no surprise that these two teams are playing for the league championship. “When the schedule game out, we didn’t want to tell the kids this, but we figured this would be for the league title,” REV coach Kurt Bruich said.
There’s a lot at stake in this game, more than just a CBL title, which would be Carter’s first in football. REV is ranked No. 1 in the CIF-SS Inland Division, and would presumably be seeded first if the Wildcats win.
Both teams are getting healthy at the right time. For the first time all season, REV is getting 6-foot, 220-pound Sr. RB/LB Taimon Faimalo back from injury after he broke his foot in the team’s scrimmage. “You feel good having him on third-and-short,” Bruich said. WR/RB Malik Lovette, has played sparingly in recent weeks with a “hamstring issue,” but is 100 percent this week, Bruich said.
Carter, meanwhile, will be getting back RB Aaron Brown and LB Dayvion Hodnett, who had been out with concussions. Lineman Lynell Smith had returned two weeks ago from a torn ligament in his foot, but is “close to 100 percent” this week.
Carter coach Alex Pierce wants to use his offense and defense to limit REV’s big-play capability. “We’ve seen on film, when teams pile up on Malik, other guys can make big plays. We need to do a good job of tackling in space,” Pierce said. “We need to limit their possessions and we need to score touchdowns when we get in the red zone. Field goals aren’t going to win this. We’re going to have to put up some points.”

Bruich expects Carter to give his team a battle in the trentches. “They’re a very tough group of kids,” he said. “They’re big and physical.”

Week 5 was a light week in terms of high school football, so there were fewer games to pick. In all, I went 18-7-1 for the week (Aquinas tied), and overall for the year, I am 143-51-2. This week, everyone has league games.